Two Hawaiian Dudes. Gamer Dudes, of Course

Menu

Pokemon Go bans cheaters

The impact of Pokémon Go on the gaming world as a gaming titan cannot denied with stories currently rife in the news of how far Pokémon gamer enthusiasts are willing to go to capture the perfect Pichu, Pokémon Go developer Niantic labs has recently disclosed players can be permanently banned from playing the game if they are discovered to be cheating at the game. The game’s updated terms of service show recently enacted clauses that include: falsifying locations, use of emulators, unofficial software or accessing Pokémon Go clients or backends in unauthorized manners can have players banned from the gaming platform. These changes have been spotted on Niantic labs official website.

While it is still currently unclear how the company will enforce the updated terms of service, the company has provided information on how players can process a request for a lift on their ban in cases of false positives. Niantic has recently begun a crackdown on any service giving players unfair advantages during gameplay. In early August, Niantic took third party services to task that helped flag locations that Pokémon were located at in the wild that allowed players skip to reliance on the game’s internal tracking system, thus making it easier to discover areas characters were located at.

This new update means that players will need to be extra careful in how they locate their Pokémon characters in order to avoid any possibility of being banned for the use of any third party software or aids. As well as third-party location services, Niantic is also reviewing the use of ‘farming’ services that allow players to automate gameplay, such as collecting items, hatching eggs and gathering Pokémon. These efforts are meant to balance out the effects of having two different types of Pokémon players, the first group normal players who just want to have fun collecting the monsters and second player accounts that are so powerful that they monopolize the gyms (player battle areas) and can never be beaten.

Pokémon Go grossed over $200 million in global revenue during its first month after launch, developers continue to strive to work out system glitches such as cheating in order to keep the game fresh thus ensuring players continue to seek out their Pokémon.